There are numerous instances throughout history of countries with lots of weaponry and aggressive foreign policies trying - and failing - to do the same thing.

Of course there are, but not many, and show me an empire that wasn't created the way I've suggested.

What I've said has nothing to do with hand wringing, merely historical fact. I feel neither responsibility nor pride for the past. More a sense of reality, and, perhaps sadness that there are those who still won't accept that the foundations of most, if not all modern prosperous countries are steeped in the blood of their victims.

We live in an age where only one historical mass extermination gets much coverage. Those that occurred due to colonisation have been largely airbrushed from history.

history has to be viewed in context

Balderdash. There's no "context" that justifies the excesses of empire building/colonialism.